Hospital officials sacked after 5 newborns die from infection
Five officials from a county hospital in Tianjin were disciplined after five newborns died from an infection in three days.
Wang Xin, president of Ji county Maternal and Child Care Service Centre and also the director of the county's health bureau, was removed from his administrative posts.
Three other staff in charge of care for newborns at the centre and the centre's vice-president were also sacked, the official Tianjin Daily reported.
Around March 15, six newborns with various symptoms were admitted to what was reputed to be the best children's hospital in the county and put in incubators. But within two days, all developed fever, rashes and yellowish skin.
Anxious parents took the infants to Beijing Children's Hospital, but five died between March 19 and 21. The sixth remained in intensive care.
Laboratory tests by Beijing Children's Hospital found that three of the newborns had contracted a bacterium usually found in clinics and hospitals, indicating that the infection had developed in the centre. They then developed septicaemia, a serious condition in which infection is spread by the circulatory system.
